116 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



were not all wanted on the farm, some of us went out to 

 work. I was the oldest boy, and of course my services were 

 worth more than that of the younger ones, and it was my lot 

 to labor with other farmers who wanted to hire help, and I 

 remember two distinct instances in my experience. There 

 were two men, both of them large farmers, who had the rep- 

 utation of being very hard men to work for. In both of 

 those instances I found them the best places where I ever 

 worked while I worked out on a farm. One of them was the 

 most particular man about his work that I ever saw. He 

 would not have a man mow in his field unless he could mow 

 to suit him. He would put him in the bush pasture to cut 

 bushes, before he would have him mow in his hay field, 

 because, as he said, he would " poison the grass." This man 

 displeased a great many men who worked for him. The 

 other man was said to be a very hard driver of his help. I 

 found no more difficulty in the latter case than the former. I 

 found them to be excellent men and as sociable as any man 

 could desire in the position I occupied. I had no fault to 

 find with either of those men. 



There is one other point to which I wish to refer, to which 

 the speaker alluded, and that is the subject of growing 

 tobacco. I suppose there are tobacco growers in this town. 

 I might perhaps differ from our friend's statement in regard 

 to that matter. I believe it is the farmer's duty and priv- 

 ilege to find out what crops he can grow on his farm where- 

 by he can realize the best returns in money, as every farmer 

 must have a money crop to pay his bills, or something that 

 he can depend upon as a specialty in farming. I agree that 

 mixed farming, to a certain extent, is desirable, but I say 

 with regard to tobacco, that if a man finds that he can raise 

 on a piece of land a crop that will sell for two or three, or 

 five or six times as much as any other crop that he can raise 

 on the same land, I should think it a very strange thing, if 

 he is a smart man, if he does not raise tobacco. It is said 

 that tobacco exhausts the land. I have heard that so many 

 times that I want to refer to it. I neither chew it nor smoke 



